Anarchy / Anti-Authoritarianism and Other Bad Kids

Dubious Yet Interesting

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>>> #NOT ANOTHER KATRINA <<<Contrary to what might be inferred by a media and government blackout - Rockaway IS. NOT. RECOVERING.

We can't stress this enough. It looks like parts of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.

Residents are being told they will receive NO assistance, no food, no medicine, NOTHING if they remain in Rockaway

As of a few hours ago Occupy Sandy Relief has a community hub up and running at Beach 113th Street and Rockaway Blvd. We are distributing lights, clothing, blankets and warm food.
DO NOT ARRIVE AT NIGHT! We will be open and ready for more volunteers and supplies tomorrow morning.
- More photos, need lists and stories to come

The whole situation in the east coast is really rough right now. I'm going to post copies of these pads right now in the hopes of circulating some material. This should prove once and for all that "preppers" have an important role to play in avoiding total disaster -- but of course in these circumstances it takes all of us working together. Where the various levels of government are totally messed up, people are making things happen in a horizontal way, covering emergency basic needs and anchoring anxious communities.

Hope it helps, there are a lot of places to plug in & postal addresses accepting supplies if nothing else....

People looking for something to do might want to check out #HurricaneHackers. Sandy CrisisCamp | CrisisCommons. Also Ushahidi is being used for crowd mapping services . Recovers.org is also being used - subdomains for locales. Tune in @globalrevlive as well for updates. At this time, a hub for distribution of aid in Rockaway has already been set up. Staten Island is definitely out of gas and things are hard to find out there but hopefully more will be known Thursday.

@OccupySandy

Occupy Sandy is a coordinated relief effort to help distribute resources & volunteers to help neighborhoods and people affected by Hurricane Sandy. We are a coalition of people & organizations who are dedicated to implementing aid and establishing hubs for neighborhood resource distribution. Members of this coalition are from Occupy Wall Street, 350.org, recovers.org and interoccupy.net. The task of rebuilding communities is a marathon and not a sprint. We thank you for your donations and your support. The hubs we have set up so far are listed below and photos and volunteer updates are available on our facebook:www.facebook.com/occupysandyreliefnyc. To contact us with information that should be included on this hub, please emailOccupySandy@interoccupy.net

To get regular updates by text message please text "occupysandy" to 23559.

Enter your email in the form on the left to receive news and updates about how you can help!

Lower East SideThe Bowery Mission45-51 Ave D212-777-3424contact: Claude Nelson or any "operations manager" on duty. they're open 24/7 and in need of prepared foods, a generator and anything else you can offer.

Specific Requests at Lower East Side:
Generator
Prepared Foods

RECOVERS.ORG PAGES

Occupy Wall Street &350.orghave teamed up with Recovers.org - a people-powered disaster relief platform - to help coordinate response to Hurricane Sandy in NYC. At Recovers.org we are launching support pages where people can GIVE help or post a NEED.Here is more information about this coalition.

We have started with the following Recovery pages, and more will be coming soon:

@joallen17 EMT Certified, available to assist. Located on UpperWestSideNYC.

Here in East Harlem (122nd and Lex) but can help. 785.423-5280. Email: debra.whoopdeedoo@gmail.com

I am @jhazard I am on Upper Westside of Manhattan. I am a journalist and Web product manager. I can't code, but I want to help any projects trying to coordinate communications and information.

@ericaswallow here. On 96th and 2nd. I am a journalist and director of community @contently. Can't code, but able bodied and can help with coordinating communications. @jhazard above is my coworker. :)

I am @A. I am located in Midtown but can come downtown if you require help in canvassing needs/delivering food and water.

BROOKLYN

In Central Brooklyn and can help anywhere I can walk to from Eastern Parkway and Franklin. Hit me on Twitter: @mickeysteiner

I'm in Prospect Heights/Crown Heights and can help anywhere I can walk to from Nostrand Ave and Prospect Place. Can carry up to 40 lbs, available Wednesday and Thursday. Find me on Twitter: @syntactics

I'm in Williamsburg Brooklyn, ready to help however possible! Can carry loads up to 50 lbs, available all day and night Tuesday, Halloween night, and Saturday. Gracegclarke@gmail.com, (314)757-0602

Also in Williamsburg. Can help. @scottmbarrett

I'm in Crown Heights, Brooklam I am fluent in English and Spanish and am ready to help angiewoody@gmail.com

I'm in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn, ready to volunteer! I have a car, I'm fluent in English and Spanish, and can help however I'm needed! emmayorra@gmail.com 802 522 8215

I am @alexfiorillo and am in Downtown Brooklyn/Gowanus/Park Slope. Can help with whatever and am ready to volunteer!

I am @ngawesome in Brooklyn and will find a way to get anywhere, please email nglisko1@aol.com if you are looking for volunteers!

I am in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn, I am able bodied, and willing to go anywhere, i speak conversational spanish and I've had a lot of experience working with children, please email katiajohnstone@gmail.com

I am @itsmefi and in Prospect Heights. Can help however possible and ready.

I am @osin located in Bushwick, BK. Willing to go anywhere and help with anything necessary.

I am @highlyfe87 located in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn can volunteer in Downtown BK, Gowanus, Park slope, Red hook. Can help pretty much anywhere within 2-3 miles. email bkcachaco07@gmail.com

In Flatbush, can walk up to 4 miles to help. @kmgrimm or kmgrimm@gmail.com.

In downtown Brooklyn, ready and willing to help. I speak English & Russian, call me at (347)-834-6805.

I'm @alyanumbers and am in Crown Heights. I have a bike and can deliver small-ish packages around Brooklyn (or even up to Manhattan). I speak French and Arabic (and some Spanish).

@precursor and I have a car, HAM radio equipment (and license of course) and a basic set of tools. Skills involve communications and construction.

QUEENS

@chuuuckDEE here, based in Jamaica, Qns. able-bodied and down to assist w/ the effort..

I'm available to lend a hand in Astoria Queens near Astoria Blvd stop. @helenamusic send me a DM

I can also lend a hand in Astoria Queens. pointslou@gmail.com

I'm available to help in the East Elmhurst/Astoria area. Ready, willing and able to work at whatever. DM me at @AgentArmando pls with details

Hi, Jake here in Woodside, Queens. I'm a carpenter / handyman with tools - ready to offer my labor or just help out in general. Contact me on Twitter: @jm4277k

Hi, I'm @misaqui, living in Sunnyside-11104. Count on me to help in the Area.

I live in Flushing, have minimal hours and no car, but am nevertheless eager to help. Skills in childcare, senior aid, animal care, and writing @chicathlete424, scfrager@gmail.com

Also able-bodied, looking to help. Astoria Ditmars, no car, but if transportation can be arranged, will travel. hairlessOrphan@gmail.com

BRONX

Need ride to shelter in Bronx? send DM to me @corinne565

I have a bag of clothes for woman size L and Men XXL - pants, shirts, shoes....willing to travel to the city tomorrow or rent a zipcar to drive to other affected areas. Can also lift 50+ lbs, donate canned goods, organize and assist. Email Jrrose29@aol.com

STATENISLAND

NJ

In Northern NJ and can also be available to travel to shore points above GSP exit 100. Good with elderly and children, shelters, food distro., etc. @joanschulhafer

LONG ISLAND

Able bodied man in Lindenhurst willing to help in person with efforts on LI. s end me a direct message @greenguy808

CONNECTICUT

@girmann in Hartford county - willing to help.

TRANSLATOR/INTERPRETER OF SPANISH AND PORTUGUESE AVAILABE TO VOLUNTEER-ASSIST IN NEW HAVEN CT and surrounding areas WWW.BALDWINLINGUAS.COM 203-759-8352 << thx!

UPSTATE NY

If you need help in Albany, NY I'm here! @lego606

I am @RixeyBrowning located in the Poughkeepsie area, I am an EMT-B and can speak Spanish, my partner is a street medic. Heading down to NYC today to see what we can do.

911 is swamped, want people to know that Grant City in Staten Island is completely flooded. I am trapped at 220 Adams Ave on the 2nd floor with about 10 people including elderly and children. The first floor is flooded and all cars are underwater. We are calm, but boats and any kind of help would be good. Power is also out. URENT, POSTING FOR A FRIEND, CAN ANYONE HELP THESE PEOPLE PLEASE << can you give some contact info so I can help? -@justinwedes << this looks tto be same NEED as https://twitter.com/jopoduimom/status/263120618294226944, going to investigate now<<HAS THIS NEED BEEN MET? Please confirm

Urgent per residents interviewed on CNN: emergency shelters are running out of food; dead body count at 14 so far but expected to be higher as many, many homes are collapsed and have not been explored yet.

EFF believes open networks are crucial in hurricane-affected areas

Update: In response to the impact of Hurricane Sandy, Comcast is opening its XFINITY WiFi hotspots to non-Comcast subscribers in PA, NJ, DE, MD, DC, VA, WV, MA, NH and ME until Nov. 7. Users should search for the network "xfinitywifi" and click on "Not a Comcast subscriber?" at the bottom of the sign-in page. Users should select the "Complimentary Trial Session" option from the drop down list. TheOpen Wireless Movement thanks Comcast for helping out!

In troubled times, it's important to help each other out. Right now, we're witnessing an unprecedented hurricane hitting the Eastern Seaboard of the United States, and the ensuing damage and power outages are crippling rescue efforts, businesses large and small, and personal communications.

Communication is critical in time of crisis, and the Internet allows for the most effective way of getting information in and out. With readily available networks, government officials could use tools like Twitter to quickly spread information, citizen reports could help focus assistance where it is needed most, and social media updates could help reassure friends and loved ones—keeping mobile phone lines open for emergencies.

To take advantage of the Internet, people should not have to attempt to skirt restrictive Terms of Service to attempt to tether their smartphones. And tethering would not be necessary if there were ubiquitous open wireless, so that anyone with a connection and power can share their network with the neigborhood.

Last year, we wrote a post titled "Why We Need An Open Wireless Movement." Today, EFF is proud to announce the launch of the Open Wireless Movement—located at openwireless.org—a coalition effort put forth in conjunction with nine other organizations: Fight for the Future, Free Press, Internet Archive, NYCwireless, the Open Garden Foundation, OpenITP, the Open Spectrum Alliance, the Open Technology Institute, and the Personal Telco Project.

What can you do with social media and online tools for your neighbors who make up your local community?

As we move from emergency response to long-term recovery, here are some collective tips from the“locals online” community(join your peers for tips and advice).

People matter more than tools.Don’t spend hours searching for the perfect tool, if you are willing to step up for your building, your block, your broader neighborhood or community, etc. it is your leadership that matters. Combining your willingness to digitally organize your neighbors with the best social media toolsfor you- be it compiling a cc: e-mail group of forty households or creating online groups using the latest social media tool for thousands - what matters most is your energy and dedication to reach out to your neighbors in every way possible.Be an e-leader for your community. You won’t regret it.

Tools do matter.Pick your social media tools carefully and think about what your neighbors will actually use. Even if you are the right person with good communication skills and the ability to quickly establish trust among those neighbors you gather online, picking the wrong tool or relying on a single tool may not work. Just because a tool has great visual design or all the fancy features does not mean it will work with people stuck on smart phones for example who just prefer to use e-mail, Facebook, etc.

Gather email addresses, mobile phone numbers, and other contact information first.Having email addresses and mobile phones numbers in your possession allow you to actively reach people. The ability to “broadcast” to your nearest neighbors with full control over when, who, etc. matters particularly if you want to reach older residents who do not “live on Facebook.” With complete control over the distribution of important information, this allows you to use different tools and approaches without being locked in by a single website. Here is apaper sign-up templateyou can adapt.

Connect people horizontally by creating an online group for your local building/block/neighborhood/community.Name it by your place generally so it can last over the long-term as a space for neighbor connecting so you are better prepared for the next disaster. Invite people to join - often in-person, on paper flyers, etc. as well as online. Remember that the technology is the easy part.Be as inclusive as possibleand don’t forget renters and lower income residents. Here are some tools to review (someone please draft and a add link). Note: Some neighborhoods still have thriving YahooGroups from a decade ago, a local “place blog” with an active web forum, etc. - join forces with them rather than recreating the wheel. Do a quick search (links to come). Some tools:

Facebook Groups:If you want to use Facebook, create aFacebookGroup not a Facebook Page. Facebook Pages are a terrible tool for sustained group communication. Note that at about 150 members in a group, Facebook switches the default email notification setting to only send you notices when your friends posts. This is a negative, but Facebook is still a good way to quickly gather people online. You can always add the use of other tools later. Facebook Groups are better for smaller areas, but don’t scale well “community participation” wise because of the hidden notification issue. Two more concerns - the public officials you want to respond to your exchanges are often blocked from social media at work and by choosing Facebook at the core you’ve eliminated half the Internet users over 50. If you have older folks on your block that you want to include, this means you need to reach then another way. Therefore do not underestimate the simple power of an effective email list to break through computer firewalls.

E-mail lists:YahooGroups, Google Groups, and more. Note that you need to use tools like Mailman or others IF you want to be able to use paper sign-up sheets as the big online hosts no longer allow you to “add” people. Now you may only invite them which means lots will not click on the confirmation link. For a “social media maven,” paper sign-up sheets for e-mail lists may seem old fashioned but this is exactly what the Presidential campaigns do - collect e-mail and Zipcode everywhere and then communication build from there. They wouldn’t do it if it didn’t work. E-Democracy goesdoor to door with the neighbors online effortsin St. Paul. It works to reach lots of people who aren’t already among the most wired or most socially connected.

NextDoor, .St, Others

Pick your scale and openness.You need to decide if you want to organize 30 households or connect an area with hundreds or thousands of residents. At the building or block level you probably want private online spaces while covering full neighborhoods you want to be far more open and inclusive. You want your public exchanges to be easy to find and open to local community organizations, places of worship, local businesses and government. You are all in this together and private resident-only spaces covering population areas over ~1000 residents will absolutely limit your success and potentially lead to greater community conflict. If you are are focusing on your nearest neighbors ovef a few streets or in your building, here is a roughGoogle Doc templateyou can copy and adapt orview as a sample form.

Twitter can be useful for spontaneous networking and quick dissolution of group connections.On Twitter use hyper-local hashtags using #place or #placeXX at a level that isn’t too local so you can reach a critical mass and not so large that it is not useful for exchange.

Specialty Tools for Response/Recovery: Recovers.org, Ushahidi

Interaction matters.The government and media will feed you lots of one-way information, but when it comes to very local information your neighbors are both the producers and consumers. No matter the tool, the key is email notification where participants can at least be told about what's new and better yet publish via e-mail as well to the community. If you are going to be that local e-leader, the most important thing to do once you choose your tool is to organize people and spread the word in-person.

Add you own, re-order, etc.

This article is informed byE-Democracy.org 18 years of experience with local online community buildingincluding our failed experience with support local“neighbours forums” in Christchurch, New Zealand after there big earthquake. In short, supporting two regional volunteers we skipped our “you must have a local volunteer forum leader and 100 initial members in place to open” requirement. The desperate need for communication to assist community recovery did not generate local volunteers even with 1000 participants recruited but spread out over 25 forums. So, in short the real world lesson is that no block, building, neighborhood or community will successfully connect in a trusted community building manner without at least one person in that area stepping up an an authentically local leader.